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Some Colombian drug growers are using genetically modified coca "trees" to boost cocaine production dramatically, government officials say.

Anti-drug operatives say they found new strains with yields eight times higher than normal coca plants.

Higher yields could help explain why cocaine prices have stayed low despite US and Colombian air attacks on farms.

Colombian scientists and US officials expressed doubts, claiming extra growth could be achieved using fertiliser.

The coca "trees" can stand over 2m tall (6ft 6in) and produce four times as much of the alkaloid active in cocaine, according to a dossier seen by Britain's Financial Times newspaper.

Although official Colombian figures claim that the area under coca cultivation has halved since 2000, evidence suggests that coca planters have managed to maintain a net level of cultivation.

German Manga, an assistant to the Colombian vice-president, told the BBC that planters were using new and sophisticated technology to maintain their levels of production.

Fertiliser theory

The leaked dossier said a new variety of coca plant had been discovered by anti-narcotics officers in the remote Sierra Nevada region of northern Colombia.

"In their search for greater profits, drug-traffickers appear to have entered the world of genetically modified crops," the dossier said.

Among the coca plants judged to have been genetically enhanced is one variety which grows up to 2.7m (9ft) tall - double the usual size.

Foreign agronomists have helped the coca growers to develop the new strain of plant, which is resistant to many commonly used herbicides and can yield as much as four times the regular concentration of cocaine, the Financial Times said.

But a Colombian toxicologist, Camilo Uribe, told Reuters news agency there was no evidence that the plants had been genetically modified.

The coca plants' excessive size could be because of "an excess of fertiliser", Mr Uribe said.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Bogota said there was "no scientific proof" that "transgenic coca" had been developed, although rumour of its existence were rife.

Government crackdown

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says the new discoveries threaten to undermine the gains made on the war on drugs in Colombia.

If the drugs trade cannot be destroyed, then the warring factions that earn up to $1bn a year from narcotics will be a lot harder to defeat, our correspondent adds.

Under the government of President Alvaro Uribe, elected in 2002, Colombia has attempted to crack down on cocaine production across the country.

He is an enthusiastic supporter of Plan Colombia, a US initiative to train Colombia's security forces and provide them with equipment and intelligence to tackle drug traffickers and destroy coca crops before they can be processed into cocaine.

Under Plan Colombia the country has become the world's third largest recipient of US military aid.

[quote]KristiMidocean said:Good now thats clear.WHO FUCKING CARES. If I am fat u all keep pointing it out like its suppose to be a secret.LIke u really have nothing better to do then make fat jokes. If o know its like I do I know yall can come up with NEW AND BETTER SHIT . This shit is old and boring . I left in the first place cause this shit got boring not because of the fat jokes . Fat jokes dont bother me but seriously its old[/quote]

this is the BBC reporting on it, which is bit more formal and much less of a 'story' than the one I posted previous to this.

As for genetically modified vs selectively bred: If you take a plant and make it immune to Roundup (the herbicide in use) over the course of 4-5 years of spraying, I think that it's a fair accomplishment. Considering it would take mother nature 20+ years to mutate around it, the 'peer2peer' network of trading cocoa cuttings to get a super plant over this short of a timespan is incredibly impressive.

I mean look at how long it took to get cannibus as potent as it is now, decades... contrast with this story and you see the time it takes to selectively breed and cuts it by a factor of 5.

The best part is that when the DEA sprays, they eliminate all other weeds competing with the cocoa and the farmers get an awesome yield out of it!

I didn't follow the link, but this seems to be reporting on a different adaptation than the older article. The other article dealt with the development of roundup resistant strains of cocoa, apparently through an efficient and noncentrallized farmer network. This seems to be a report on higher yeild crops, which compensate for the acerage destroyed by the Colombian and American gov'ts.

Quote: The best part is that when the DEA sprays, they eliminate all other weeds competing with the cocoa and the farmers get an awesome yield out of it!

They also kill the surrounding fragile environment

I don't like cocaine, but anything to piss off the DEA is good news to me. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even though I'd rather have this be about a new more effective LSD synthesis than an herbicide resistant coca strain

--------------------So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.

Quote: The best part is that when the DEA sprays, they eliminate all other weeds competing with the cocoa and the farmers get an awesome yield out of it!

They also kill the surrounding fragile environment

I don't like cocaine, but anything to piss off the DEA is good news to me. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even though I'd rather have this be about a new more effective LSD synthesis than an herbicide resistant coca strain

to that

I would have to say that roundup is the lesser of two evils when compared to a somewhat-genetically targeted mold or something worse...